Philokalia

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Having
shown us the danger of pride, St. John wishes to lead us step by step to the
virtue of humility (Step 25).
Before we consider humility, however, he insists that we must seek
meekness. What is meekness? St. John answers: "Meekness is a
mind consistent amid honor and dishonor; meekness prays quietly and sincerely
for a neighbor however troublesome he may be; meekness is a rock looking out
over the sea of anger which breaks the waves which come crashing on it and
stays entirely unmoved; meekness works alongside of obedience, guides a
religious community, checks frenzy, curbs anger."

A
meek person 1) is not quick to defend or justify himself in the presence and
thoughts of others. He is not
easily unsettled by the words and opinions of others, 2) guards his heart
carefully against the intrusion of thoughts of "frenzy (against any
thoughts which disturb his internal peace), 3) is calm in the midst of
disturbing events; he is not easily excited or provoked, 4) watches over his
words, carefully choosing to utter only those which bring peace, 5) does not
project himself into conversations or situations in which his presence is not
desired, 6) does not jump in to correct everyone and everything, 7) is willing
to wait for God to act and does not believe that his action is necessary to
God, 8) knows how to pray and to be quiet, 9) has no personal agenda and is
concerned only for God's will - recognizing that God's will unfolds itself in
ways that are unusual and unexpected.
Thus, even in his concern for God's will, he is willing to calmly wait
for God to accomplish His purpose.
When he must act, he does so out of calm faith rather than panicky
unbelief.

It
is interesting that St. John connects meekness with simplicity and
guilelessness: "A meek soul is a throne of simplicity, but a wrathful mind
is a creature of evil." "Guilelessness is the joyful condition of an
uncalculating soul." He use
three images as illustrations: childhood, Adam in the Garden and St. Paul the
simple.

During
childhood, he tells us, there is an absence of concern to "fit
in". Those who have struggled
for simplicity live much the same.
Fitting in with the crowd, and compromising one's integrity to do so,
are not a part of their lifestyle.
They are free from the necessity to change themselves (becoming
social/spiritual chameleons) to "fit in" and to meet the expectations
of others.

From
Adam in the Garden we learn that simplicity is the absence of
self-awareness. St. John writes:
"As long as Adam has simplicity, he saw neither the nakedness of his soul
nor the indecency of his flesh."
Adam was free from the desire to "look in the mirror" and the
necessity of "standing on the scale." Does not a lot of vanity spring from an unhealthy desire to
look good in the eyes of other people or to find out how we look to
others? Here we see why St. John
keeps mentioning hypocrisy as he discusses simplicity. Our outside appearance often becomes
the equivalent of a mask, designed to keep people from seeing us as we really
are. Our outside appearance
becomes divorced from our inner self.
The inherent, simple connection between our inner soul and outer body
becomes distorted. This distortion
wreaks havoc on our spiritual lives.

From
St. Paul the Simple, we learn that simplicity is linked to obedience and firm
faith. St. Paul was a disciple of
Antony the Great. St. Antony
thought him too old to be a monk, but Paul submitted to the severest
disciplines with such unquestioning obedience that in a relatively short time
he acquired holiness and spiritual powers even greater than his master's. After relating this story, St. John
draws this conclusion: "Fight to escape your own cleverness. If you do, then you will find salvation
and an uprightness through Jesus Christ. . . "

If
we follow the simple path - distrusting our own wisdom, doing the best we can
yet realizing that our mind, without warmth of heart is a very weak tool - -
then a Godly life will begin to be formed in us.

Meekness
is a mind consistent amid honor and dishonor. Meekness prays quietly and sincerely for a neighbor however
troublesome he may be. Meekness is
a rock looking out over the sea of anger which breaks the waves which come
crashing on it and stays entirely unmoved. Meekness is the bulwark of patience, the door, indeed the
mother of love, and the foundation of discernment. For it is said: "The Lord will teach His ways to the
meek" (Ps. 24:9) And it is
meekness that earns pardon for our sins, gives confidence to our prayers and
makes a place for the Holy Spirit.
"To whom shall I look if not the meek and the peaceful?" (Is.
66:2).

Meekness
works alongside of obedience, guides a religious community, checks frenzy,
curbs anger. It is a minister of
joy, an imitation of Christ, the possession of angels, a shackle for demons, a
shield against bitterness. The
Lord finds rest in the hearts of the meek, while the turbulent spirit is the
home of the devil. "The meek
shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5), indeed, rule over it; and the
bad-tempered shall be carried off as booty from their land.

A
meek soul is a throne of simplicity, but a wrathful mind is a creator of evil.

A
gentle soul will make a place for wise words, since the "Lord will guide
the meek in judgment" (Ps. 24:9), or rather, in discretion.

Hypocrisy
is soul and body in a state of opposition to each other, intertwined with every
kind of invention.

Malice
is honesty perverted, a deluded thought, a lying disposition, perjury, and
ambiguous words. Malice is a false
heart, an abyss of cunning, deceit that has become habitual, pride that is
second nature. It is the foe of
humility, a fake penitence, mourning depleted, a refusal to confess, an
insistence on getting one's own way.
It is the agent of lapses, a hindrance to resurrection, a tolerance of
wrongdoing, false-grief, false reverence.
It is life gone diabolical.

Let
us run from the precipice of hypocrisy, from the pit of duplicity.

Unadorned
simplicity is the first characteristic of childhood. As long as Adam had it, he saw neither the nakedness of his
soul nor the indecency of his flesh.

If
you wish to draw the Lord to you, approach Him as disciples to a master, in all
simplicity, openly, honestly, without duplicity, without idle curiosity. He is simple and uncompounded. And he wants the souls that come to Him
to be simple and pure. Indeed you
will never see simplicity separated from humility.

The
evil man is a false prophet. He
imagines that from words he can catch thoughts, from appearance the truth of
the heart.

Paul
the Simple, that thrice-blessed man, was a shining example to us. He was the measure and type of blessed
simplicity, and no one has ever seen or heard or could see so much progress in
so short a time.

A
simple monk is like a dumb but rational and obedient animal. He lays his burden on his spiritual
director. And like the animal who
never answers back to the master who yokes him, the upright soul does not talk back
to his superior. Instead, he
follows where he is directed to go and will raise no protest even if sent to
his death.

A
lapse often saves the clever man, bringing him salvation and innocence in spite
of himself.

Fight
to escape from your own cleverness.
If you do, then you will find salvation and an uprightness through Jesus
Christ our Lord.

If
you have the strength to take this step, do not lose heart. For now you are imitating Christ your
Master and you have been saved.

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LOVE OF THE BEAUTIFUL

The Philokalia ("love of the beautiful", a love for everything of God, beauty’s source) is a collection of texts written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Christian contemplative, ascetic and hesychast tradition. They describe the conditions most effective for learning what their authors call the art of arts and the science of sciences, a learning which is not a matter of information or agility of mind but of a radical change of will and heart leading man towards the highest possibilities open to him, shaping and nourishing the unseen part of his being, and helping him to spiritual fulfillment and union with God. This website is a personal journal of my reflections on these writings and their basic themes. It was 30 years ago, as a young novice of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Pittsburgh, that I was first introduced to the Philokalia and have found myself deeply attracted to and profoundly influenced by this spiritual tradition that has been transmitted over almost two millennia. Until recently, most of the writings of the Philokalia were only known in the West by a few specialists, but the hesychast current was by no means foreign to the Western spiritual tradition. St. John Cassian transmitted the doctrine of the Desert Fathers and Evagrius Pontus to the Latin world and was read tirelessly by western monastics and other spiritually serious Western Christians, including St. Philip Neri. These writings are the legacy we receive from the Fathers and our study of them fidelity to the Church’s call over the past fifty years to return to the sources (ressourcement) of the patristic tradition.